Ten tribes of Israel were completely lost, replaced by the Samaritans. Meanwhile, in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, things were not much better.
[During Rehoboam’s reign] in Judah. …Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, … Judah imitated all the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD had cleared out of the Israelites’ way. 1 Kings 14:21-24
God gave them hints that things were not right. Remember how …
… [Solomon] had peace on all his borders … 1 Kings 5:4
Well …
In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, [the] king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. He took everything, including the treasures of the temple of the LORD … 1 Kings 14:25-26
Only the tribe of Judah was left. 2 Kings 17:18
We will now start to hear the term Jew. It technically is short for a member of the tribe of Judah, but since only the tribe of Judah, with a few from the tribe of Benjamin, remained, we generally use the term “Jew” to refer to all of the remaining chosen people of God.
Jeremiah prophesied, revealing the words of God to the Jews … Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: … the kings of Judah have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. … They … immolate their sons in fire as holocausts to Baal: Jer 19:3-5
Give ear, listen humbly, for the LORD speaks. … Give glory to the LORD, your God, before it grows dark; … If you do not listen to this in your pride, I will weep in secret many tears; Jer 13:15-17
I abandon my house, cast off my heritage; The beloved of my soul I deliver into the hand of her foes. Jer 12:7
… All Judah I will deliver to the king of Babylon, who shall take them captive to Babylon or slay them with the sword. Jer 20:4
I will give [the Jews] a heart with which to understand that I am the LORD. [The Jews] shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. Jer 24:7
In spite of the prophetic messages ..
… all … the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the LORD’S temple … Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people … But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, … 2 Chron 36:14-16
So finally …
… [God] brought up against them [Nebuchadnezzar], the king of the Chaldeans … All … the treasures of the LORD’S house and of the king and his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. … They burnt the house of God, tore down the walls of Jerusalem, set all its palaces afire, and destroyed all its precious objects. … Those who escaped the sword he carried captive to Babylon, where they became his and his sons’ servants until the kingdom of the Persians came to power. 2 Chron 36:17-20
The forgetting of the Law and the infidelity to the covenant end in death: it is the Exile, … #710
The Exile is so important in Jewish history, St. Matthew mentions it in the genealogy of Jesus
Mat 1:11
The Exile is … apparently the failure of the promises, … [but] is in fact the mysterious fidelity of the Savior God and the beginning of a promised restoration, but [restoration] according to the Spirit. The People of God had to suffer this purification. #710
Not because God imposed the Exile as a punishment, but because we human beings resist restoration. We often have to be forced into it.